First record of Inca Tern Larosterna inca in Galapagos Islands Gustavo Jiménez-Uzcátegui 1 & Juan Carlos Manosalvas 2 1 Charles Darwin Research Station, Puerto Ayora, Galapagos, Ecuador. gustavo.jimenez@fcdarwin.org.ec 2 Current address: Puerto Ayora, Galapagos, Ecuador. (Recibido: 20 agosto de 2010) KEY WORDS. Inca tern, Larosterna inca, record, Galápagos Island. this document. This is contribution number 2028 of the Charles Darwin Foundation for the Galapagos Islands. LITERATURE CITED Hilty, S. L. & W. L Brown. 1986. A Guide to the Birds of Colombia. Princeton University Press. New Jersey.836 p. IUCN. 2010. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2010.3 www.iucnredlist.org. Downloaded on September 2010. Jiménez-Uzcátegui, G., Milstead, B., Márquez, C., Zabala, J., Buitrón, P., Llerena, A., Salazar, S. & B. Fessl. 2007. Galapagos vertebrates: endangered status and conservation actions. In CDF, GNP & INGALA (eds.). Galapagos Report 2006–2007. Charles Darwin Foundation, Puerto Ayora, Ecuador. Pp. 104–110. Ridgely, R. S. & P. J. Greenfeld. 2001. The Birds of Ecuador. Status, Distribution and Taxonomy. Cornell University Press, New York. 848 p. Wiedenfeld, D. A. 2006. Lists of species. Aves, the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador. Checklist 2(2): 1–27. The range of Inca tern Larosterna inca is along the Pacifc coast from Gorgona Island, Colombia to Valdivia, Chile (Hilty et al. 1986). In some years individuals disperse as far as Panama (Ridgely & Greenfeld 2001). In Ecuador, the species is a rare visitor to the coast of Guayas Province, but it was reported to be common in Playas and Salinas in 1972 (T. Butler in Ridgely & Greenfeld 2001); incursions may correlate with major El Niño events (Ridgely & Greenfeld 2001). It breeds mainly on rocky islets and cliffs along the Peruvian coast and locally in Aconcagua, Chile (Hilty et al. 1986), and sometimes on old nest of a Humboldt Penguin Spheniscus Humboldt. The population has been estimated more than 150 000 individuals (IUCN 2010). On 14 August 2008, JCM and tourists observed and photographed an unusual bird on Daphne Major Island (0°25´11”S 90°22´12”W) on the rocks. This bird had a dark grey body, white moustache, and red-orange beak and feet. JCM identifed the bird as an adult Inca Tern. Subsequently, photographs permitted confrmation of the identifcation by GJU. The bird was apparently healthy for their activity and shine feathers. This is the frst record of an Inca Tern in the Galapagos Islands. Three days later, and presumably, the same bird was seen on the same island by T. Brink and it was the last information. With this record, the number of bird species recorded in Galapagos grows to 178 of which 56 breed (species, subspecies and native) in the islands (Wiedenfeld 2006, Jiménez-Uzcátegui et al. 2007). The Inca tern enters in the List of all know species from the Galapagos Islands such as Native-Vagrant. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank the Galapagos National Park Service and the Charles Darwin Research Station. Thanks to Marta Tufet and David Wiedenfeld for review BRENESIA 73-74: 137, 2010 View publication stats View publication stats